PGA (Psidium Growers Association) - thread all about psidiums!

[Jaboticaba45]

Off topic but tomorrow I am going to meet with Professor Leslie Landrum who retired from Arizona State. He's an expert in the Myrtle family. Would happy to pass along any questions you might think of.

First time meeting him so dont make me sound too pretentious

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_R._Landrum

Could you ask him about his Jaboticaba knowledge?
Such a cool opportunity you have!
Also congrats to 100 replies on this thread! Let's keep it going.

[Kevinthegarden]

I'm surprised noone mentioned all the hot seedless guava variety on the market. I grow a few of them - Thai ruby seedless guava, Thai seedless, Taiwanese ruby seedless, Taiwanese seedless

I actually bought one a few months back from one of the FB importing sellers. I believe I have 2 fruits currently holding. Will report back on the taste in End of Fall early Winter hopefully.

[Mike T]

I have 2 seedling Cuban guavas nearly of flowering age but have little information on the quality of the best Cuban types. One is a Cuban Orange fleshed and the other is a large pink fleshed Cuban. Seeds were purchased as desirable varieties. Is that enough information for anyone to provide coherent additional information?

[MadFarm]

First fruit of the year in the beginning of the year. They are progressively improving on a 4+ year old tree, supposedly Ruby Supreme

[MadFarm]

https://youtube.com/shorts/17OikEAsCYw?feature=share

[Kevinthegarden]

Anyone here growing psidium robustum?

I have one 5 year old tree grown from seed, flowered for the first time about a month ago here in zone 10b. Looks like a couple fruit are developing.

Update on my psidium robustum - A few fruits starting to form, excited to try this one
second pick is an unknown guava (possibly a vietnam or thai type), have had it for years - crunchy sweet white flesh. size is 1-3 baseballs usually depending on fruit thinning

[hammer524]

My p. Robustum has been the hardiest guava I’ve grown so far

[rdm]

Psidium friedrichsthalianum



Psidium striatulum



Bunch of standard psidium guajava, Mexican cream, barbie pink, Hong Kong pink, gushikin orange, ruby x supreme, Philippine Swirl, Ka Hua Kula, and a few Thai white types



guajava White pear



guajava Indonesian white

rdm, have any of your standard guavas fruited? How are the indonesian and thai white guavas? I'm thinking of adding some to my collection

sorry for late reply, didn't see the question till now.

i ended up chopping the Thai white guavas, i tried each and even bought fruits from the farmers market and they were all just slightly sweeter hard apples that even when peeled tasted like wheat grass.  the Indonesian  is actually really good, i cant tell for certain but from descriptions its seems like its comparable to the tropical white that's sold on the mainland...i wouldn't be surprised to find out its the same plant just under a different name, it does have a slightly vegital taste compared to rubyXsupreme and barbie pink, no musk like the pinks, it had a softer texture then the pinks, closer to a soft pear then the more rubbery flesh of the pinks, also sweeter and noticeably more tart so it reminds me of a less sharp sweettart candy. i have a rubyXsurpeme i air layered recently but im considering another  Indonesian to put in the ground instead.

 i feel like the  Indonesian is a better eating out of hand fruit while the pinks are better suited for use as an ingredient, rubyXsupreme makes a great simple smoothy with some water, ice and sugar along with barbie pink which is vastly larger then rubyXsurpeme but has a more rubbery texture so while also good for smoothy i suspect it would be a better tree for were you need bulk guava that doesn't need to stand on it own feet like in a cake/pie/ect.

my narrow leaf seems to be languishing, i just stopped growing, lost most leaves and never really put on new growth so kinda expecting it to finally die off at some point and make room for something else. 

orange guava doing well in pot, has a flower but hasn't fruited yet. hong kong pink still small, white pear getting very large now but hasn't flowered yet but i expect it will at any time now. cas guava doing well, seems to be the slowest grower out of them all but seems to be happy, im actually the most excited to try that one since i love sour things, i like to lick lemons,limes,calamondin so the prospects of a white guava that's super sour right off the tree was a must have for me.

oh, the Mexican cream got absolutely massive, fruited...and was pink...so thanks etsy seller. so chopped it as well, its a ruby supreme now....so if anyone knows a legit reliable source for a Mexican cream its kinda my last wish list guava before i think im done acquiring new types. its been my unicorn that iv been chasing but never caught.

[chrisafix23]

rdm, thanks for the descriptions. The Indonesian sounds good. I actually have a Mexican cream that has a couple of fruits on it. I’ll let you know how they turn out. Maybe we can swap some scions or air layers.

[Lovetoplant]

I'm surprised noone mentioned all the hot seedless guava variety on the market. I grow a few of them - Thai ruby seedless guava, Thai seedless, Taiwanese ruby seedless, Taiwanese seedless

Greenpasteur,  can you post a picture of the leaves of the rounded guava fruit in picture#2?  How big is the leaf?  Thanks

[K-Rimes]

my narrow leaf seems to be languishing, i just stopped growing, lost most leaves and never really put on new growth so kinda expecting it to finally die off at some point and make room for something else. 

I am always surprised that not every plant loves Hawaii, but the cerrado background may make it most at home in CA's drier conditions. It is such an easy grower for me. I am starting to hone in on fruiting plants that more closely match my climate and it seems to be yielding positive results, guavas from the cerrado are IT!

so if anyone knows a legit reliable source for a Mexican cream

It's always at Home Depot here in CA, but I am sure someone on the forum can help you out with that if not an even better cultivar thereof. If not, I have no issues cutting a plant up on your behalf. 

[K-Rimes]

Some guava from a trip to El Salvador


Cas guava with a honker of a tree behind it


Flowers and fruits both present


They grow without any care in that climate, no extra water


My orange guava is blowing UP with flowers. This looks like a good year and I hope they finish up sooner than last year. It is unlikely in my climate I'll get enough warm weather for them.

[greenerpasteur]

I'm surprised noone mentioned all the hot seedless guava variety on the market. I grow a few of them - Thai ruby seedless guava, Thai seedless, Taiwanese ruby seedless, Taiwanese seedless

Greenpasteur,  can you post a picture of the leaves of the rounded guava fruit in picture#2?  How big is the leaf?  Thanks

Here are two variety on one tree I grafted. The round Taiwanese ruby seedless guava leaves is on the right


It has a very big leaves. Bigger than Taiwanese white seedless

[Lovetoplant]

I'm surprised noone mentioned all the hot seedless guava variety on the market. I grow a few of them - Thai ruby seedless guava, Thai seedless, Taiwanese ruby seedless, Taiwanese seedless

Greenpasteur,  can you post a picture of the leaves of the rounded guava fruit in picture#2?  How big is the leaf?  Thanks

Here are two variety on one tree I grafted. The round Taiwanese ruby seedless guava leaves is on the right


It has a very big leaves. Bigger than Taiwanese white seedless

Thank you.  Mine is about a year old growing from seed.  The leaves are very big, wavy, and purplerish in color.  Very nice foliage.  The fruit I got the seeds from looks similar to yours but almost twice as big.  It contains 4-5 seeds

[K-Rimes]

Cas Guava has come back from the brink of death, but I think the results are clear - it hates winters here in 9b. I think I'm going to pull it out of the ground and put it in the greenhouse potted.


Long leaf fruit sets, it's still flowering but not all that much. Next year no more N


Skittles guava is going berserk this year


Skittles


Fern leaf has been really taking off now in the full sun, I will probably up pot it soon. I think guavas like full sun, even when young, it barely grew at all in the 50% shade gh


Lemon guava totally loaded. Last year I thinned the fruits and they weren't all that big so this year I'm just letting it hold however many it wants



Orange flesh guava fruit sets



Ok this is big for me. This is an unknown guava that is in ground and absolutely huge. First year it flowered and it kept dropping them, I kinda gave up on getting to taste it. I see fruit sets now though!



Psidium myrtoides I got for free this year is setting fruit. I absolutely destroyed this thing when it got pulled out of the ground. It barely had a rootball and I chopped around 70% of the canopy off. It has made a great recovery. I hear the fruit sucks, but at least I'll get to try it.

[Jaboticaba45]

Good news for the psidium growers - I hope to share some of these next spring. This is psidium guineese var caatinga. I got them from Giant Gecko who got them from a grower in Brazil.
I remember when I sprouted the longipetiolatum, they got super huge really quick.

pink guava and the little runt eugeniafolia (myrtoides). I'll report back on taste.

The fruit is a little small, probably could get bigger, but I haven't been watering because I'm busy.
Ok, I'm not really impressed with the eugeniafolia. Kinda troll. Very sour and has so many seeds but they are huge seeds.

That was my reaction with the cas guava also (I forgot I even got to try that one) - But at least with cas, it is bigger so there you have it.

[nattyfroootz]

I see your P striatulum is doing the cleistogamous (don't open) flowers thing. My plant didnt do it for the first few years now its common on my mother and all the seedlings. My mother started producing opened flowers this year but still a good bunch of them are cleistogamous.  Wonder if its a recessive trait that is due to inbreeding due to a lack of genetic diversity.  Would be great to get some different genetics to breed that trait out.  The fern leaf I gave you has so many seedlings from that batch of seeds that are not fern leafed and i wonder if its related to P striat due to visual similarities, maybe can use that to cross.

[K-Rimes]

I see your P striatulum is doing the cleistogamous (don't open) flowers thing. My plant didnt do it for the first few years now its common on my mother and all the seedlings. My mother started producing opened flowers this year but still a good bunch of them are cleistogamous.  Wonder if its a recessive trait that is due to inbreeding due to a lack of genetic diversity.  Would be great to get some different genetics to breed that trait out.  The fern leaf I gave you has so many seedlings from that batch of seeds that are not fern leafed and i wonder if its related to P striat due to visual similarities, maybe can use that to cross.

I think reasonably almost all psidium can cross / hybridize. I grafted guineense onto guajava no issue so that should be a hybrid for sure. I'll save those seeds for sure. I have a lot of guava flowering and bees now and so I think a lot of my seeds if not all of them will be hybrids. I'll put some other guavas around the striatulum, and especially that fern leaf once it's matures.

[shmojojojo]

pink guava and the little runt eugeniafolia (myrtoides). I'll report back on taste.

The fruit is a little small, probably could get bigger, but I haven't been watering because I'm busy.
Ok, I'm not really impressed with the eugeniafolia. Kinda troll. Very sour and has so many seeds but they are huge seeds.

That was my reaction with the cas guava also (I forgot I even got to try that one) - But at least with cas, it is bigger so there you have it.

Hang in there, the eugeniafolia will improve! Been there done that with the first batch of small fruits. Sour and astringent. Even my second flush of my first fruiting was a major improvement. Same goes for a lot of psidium. Was the flesh a dark red color?

[K-Rimes]

Re: cleistogamous, looks like it's not every flower. It does happen though.

[rdm]

Cas guava getting bigger, slow growth and seem to grow a bit, stops, drops a few lower leaves and then goes back to growing again.



Psidium striatulum seems to have finally died off. now to decide what to put in its place, was thinking of buying another Indonesian white, but i do have a 3rd rubyXsupreme air layer that's doing well in a pot, maybe ill just put that into the ground. tho the larger fruit from the barbie pink is also nice to have for the shear bulk of it..but my recent air layer a week or two after being cut and potted had all the leaves brown, still waiting to see if it pulls through but its been about 2 weeks and no obvious green buds appearing.

[a_Vivaldi]

My p. Robustum has been the hardiest guava I’ve grown so far

What kind of temperature has it taken?

[hammer524]

33 degrees and the hottest month on record for Phoenix. I havent received below freezing temps in a few years.

[a_Vivaldi]

Seems to be living up to is name then. That's cool

[MadFarm]

Just harvested these. Biggest pink guavas I've seen. Ruby Supreme